Rudolph the Red Nose Brennan!

Brennan will have a red nose for Christmas. He was pulling up on the laundry basket when it fell over and scraped his nose. He is still as happy as can be though!

We visited my brother Richard, his wife Alicia and their new son Coltyn in North Carolina. Mason and Brennan adored their new baby cousin. We were glad to spend time with them before they move back to California.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Let it Snow!

Brennan pulls up to standing on just about any object or person. (No, that is not an angelic halo! That picture is from my old camera which is obviously broken!)
Mason eating snow. (New camera!)

Just a dusting of snow and really we could only stay out for about 10 minutes... it was freezing!

We are getting ready for Christmas. We have decorated and the boys have done well with leaving the tree intact! We have all been sick recently but seem to be on the mend. Brennan had the worst of it with croup. It was a little scary since it was our first ER visit with Brennan but, he is a brave boy. He even managed to give the nurse a smile while he was having a hard time breathing.

We took Mason and Brennan to see Santa today. We have no pictures to show since they both cried over the whole ordeal! Brennan sat on Santa's lap and immediately started crying. Mason never even gave it a try. Maybe next year!

Happy Half Birthday!

Mason climbed into bed with Brennan.
Cousin Blake and Brennan

Brennan turned six months old yesterday. He is such a strong boy! He is crawling all over the place and exploring everything! He can go from sitting to crawling and then back to sitting with ease. He weighed in at 17 lbs. 13 ozs today. Mason is dealing with the crawling as best as possible. The fight over toys has begun; although Brennan gladly gives in at this point!

Loving Coupons!

In the last few months I have developed a new hobby. When the prices went up at the grocery store and gas station, I started clipping coupons. I have always been a coupon user but now I take it very seriously. I have saved us a lot of money and I get so excited when I find a bargain! I have to credit my friend Dana for getting me so motivated to save money. Dana has a blog that she updates regularly with the best deals at several stores www.frugalinvirginia.com . Up until yesterday, I had only doing my big bargain shopping at CVS drugstore. I branched out this week as two grocery stores in Charlottesville had some great deals! Harris Teeter is honoring triple coupons up to .99 cents… awesome! Kroger has a great discount given on select items when you buy ten. I was so excited yesterday about my savings that I actually took a picture of the products from each store!

Harris Teeter: paid $41.58, saved $71.63
Kroger: paid $34.98, saved $67.77

So, we are stocked on groceries for awhile! I just wanted to share my great savings with you all to motivate you as well!

Scarecrows

Brennan passed out before trick or treating began.

Mason loved carving the pumpkin. He didn't like touching the insides though!

Mason and Brennan were scarecrows for Halloween. We had a full day of trick or treating. During the day I took the boys to a shopping center were they had activities for children. That was a good practice run for Mason! After naps, we headed to the other Chiovaro’s house for dinner. We had a Halloween themed dinner: Witches fingers (mozzarella sticks), mummy dogs, night crawlers and eyeballs (spaghetti and meatballs), purple people eater punch and eyeball jelly (jello jigglers). It was a lot of fun! We then went trick or treating around Rick and Cathy’s neighborhood. Mason got the idea very quickly and was eager to open the candy. He has become very independent and wanted to walk by himself down the dark roads and steep stairs. He tells me “no, I got it” or “by myself”.

Other news, Brennan loves food! He eats a variety of fruits and veggies now. He has also tried a pretzel rod and graham cracker. He gets very frustrated if other people are eating and he doesn’t have anything. Brennan is close to crawling. He scoots backwards very well and in fact can go backwards across a room. He can get up on all fours and move his knees forward. He has not quite figured out his arms yet, thank goodness! Brennan loves Mason! He thinks his big brother is very funny. Mason also enjoys Brennan and often says “Bren watch this” and then performs some stunt. Brennan is a joy and a very happy boy!

Travel and Transition

Brennan, Renae and Mason on the Pismo Beach Pier
Mason checking out the surfers
Rob and Mason
Mason on Grandma's Scooter
Brennan sitting by himself

Well, the Chiovaro's have been busy! We went to California and had a great visit with family and friends. Mason and Brennan were complete angels on the flights! Mason had a hard time adjusting to the time change though.

When we got home, we decided to move Mason to his big boy bed. This has not gone smoothly! It takes him about an hour to fall asleep and he wakes up in the middle of the night. It has been two weeks and he is still not sleeping well. We hope for improvement soon.

Brennan is now sitting up. He has also started eating fruits and veggies. Such a big boy! He has also made a transition... we moved him to his own room instead of in the bassinet in our room. Hopefully this goes more smoothly than the Mason transition!

Healthy Boys!

Brennan in his excersaucer for the 1st time!

Mason collecting acorns in his pocket!

The boys had their checkup with the pediatrician yesterday. Mason weighed in at 26 pounds is about 35 inches tall. He is doing well in all aspects of his develepment- speech, social, cognitive and motor skills. My favorite thing that he says right now is "watch out cars" when I am driving! Does he think I am a bad driver or what? Mason loves "Blue's Clues" and "Jay Jay the Jet Plane". He continues to love sports and outdoors.

Brennan weighed in at 15 pounds 8 ounces and 24.5 inches long at four months. He is chubby and we love those rolls! Brennan is advanced with his motor skills. He can now turn himself in a circle while on his belly. Brennan's new favorite activity is jumping! If he is standing on your legs he is contastantly jumping. He is a happy baby!

We are headed to California on Wednesday... yeah! So, the rest of the week will be busy for us!

Happy 2nd Birthday Mason!

Mason mowing like Daddy! Note: The swing set in the background; this was before it was done.
Mason still likes to play with boxes!
Happy Brennan!

Mason turned two on Friday! We had a party for him yesterday with family and friends. For Mason's birthday present we got him a wooden swing set. We bought it used and Rob (with Rick's help) has been working hard on it the last couple of weeks. Mason loves to swing and slide! He also loves to pretend like he is working on the swing set too... he uses the level and pretends to put screws in! I will post pictures of Mason's party when I get them.

Brennan continues to grow quickly. He has been rolling for two weeks now. He rolls really well from back to front and he sometimes manages to roll the reverse direction. Brennan can also inch his way forward and backward while on his tummy. He is very strong!

Amusement Park

Mason and Jacob on a ride
Bradley and Mason
Mason and I waiting in line for the Scooby Doo Mystery House

On Friday, I took Mason to King’s Dominion Amusement Park. We went with Julie, Jacob, Evan and Cousin Bradley. Brennan was able to spend some quality time with Uncle Rick and Aunt Cathy! Mason was able to go on a couple of the small rides. We also went to the water park. Mason enjoyed running and splashing in the toddler pool. I was able to take Bradley on some bigger water slides while Julie watched the little guys. I have to say that I am getting too old for those water slides! Bradley and I started out on the totally enclosed tube slides about seven stories high. I was shaking when I got to the bottom! I sent Bradley back up to do another one on his own…I preferred to watch! We then went on an inflatable tube ride which I did enjoy. We had a fun day even though I ended up with a backache the next day!

Brennan: 3 months old

Brennan is now three months old. He is very strong! He is trying to roll over already. Brennan also tries to scoot forward while on his belly. It is fun watching him be more interactive. He loves to smile! He slept through the night Sunday night as well. I am hoping there are more of those nights to come real soon!

Pickles and Peaches

Cathy's dining room table loaded with our goods!
Jars of pickles, sliced peaches, peach salsa and peach jam

This past weekend, Cathy and I canned pickles and peaches. We have become more ambitious this year and tried several different recipes. It was fun researching recipes and we discovered that you can pickle just about anything. We put in some long hours but everything turned out fantastic. And in case you were wondering how many jars you can get from a bushel of cucumbers and a peck of peaches, the list follows.

1 Bushel Pickling Cucumbers...
Polish Dills
6 Quarts
11 Pints
9 Quarts (Fridge Recipe/Canned)

Dill Pickles
6 Quarts
10 Pints

Kosher Dill
3 Quarts
11 Pints

Sweet - Bread & Butter -- (Fridge Recipe)
2 Pints
4 - 1/2 Pints

1 Peck Peaches...

Peaches -- Sliced
22 Pints

Peach Salsa
18 - 1/2 Pints

Peach Jam
14 - 1/2 Pints
6 - 4 oz.
Needless to say, we will have enough pickles for years to come!

Moneysavingmom.com

Well, in this time of economic problems, I have decided to be more diligent with using coupons. Through a friends recommendation, I started reading the moneysavingmom.com blog. On this site, people post all of the money saving deals they have found for the week. It basically tells you which store to use your coupons at in order to save them most money. So, after research and organizing my coupons I headed to the CVS drugstore. I bought 2 pert plus shampoos, 2 deodorants, 2 tubes of toothpaste and a bag of chips. After using coupons and my CVS card my total was $4.96. I also received $3.50 in extra bucks. The extra bucks are like CVS money that you can use at your next purchase. I also hit Wal-mart this week and ended up with 4 packs of clean team wipes for .14 cents each after coupons! So, I am pretty excited about my savings and I hope to continue. It takes a bit of work but I am told it gets easier as you go along. I can't wait for tomorrow's paper to find the good deals! I know, you are probably thinking there are better things to do! But, I love finding good deals!

New York

Mason in the dogs water bucket
Grandma Chiovaro and Brennan
Mason in his new bike helmet (it was once cousin Brad's who is now 11!).

Our trip to New York went well. It took us 10 hours each way and we only had to make two stops. The boys did better in the car than I could have ever imagined! I have to say that the DVD player was worth the investment. Unfortunately, Mason ended up getting sick the second day which made him extremely cranky. He did have fun feeding the ducks at the river and blueberry picking. Mason ate more blueberries than he put in his bucket! We also had a family picnic. It actually ended up being an eat inside picnic as it rained pretty hard that day. Which also meant that the races we were going to attend were cancelled. It was a short trip but we were glad that everyone was able to meet Brennan.

Happy Brennan!

Brennan is now two months old. He weighed in at 13 pounds at the Dr.'s office yesterday! Brennan has had issues with spitting up and acid reflux. It has been so bad that I issue a warning to everyone who wants to hold him! His Dr. has put him on zantac and we are hoping that helps. It was also recommended that we start him on a small amount of rice cereal. The cereal should help the spitting up and as an added benefit, it may help him sleep longer! I am still very sleep deprived as Brennan is usually up at least twice a night. I am hoping with the medication and cereal he will be more comfortable so I can get some zzzzzzz's! We started the regimen last night. Brennan seemed to really like the cereal and ended up sleeping 6 hours straight... yipee!

Mason is doing well. He had a rough time with me returning to work but, I think he is getting use to the routine. Yesterday he went pee on the potty for the first time! He did it all by himself too! We were very excited. Something to make you laugh: This morning he was outside and looked up in the sky and saw the moon. He said "moon in sky". I said "yes". He then said "cow?". I said "no there is no cow". He then started to cry because he could not find the cow jumping over the moon! I tried to explain that the cow only jumps over the moon in books but, I don't think he gets that yet! Mason is very attentive to Brennan. As soon as he starts crying, Mason comes running to see if he can help. What a good big brother!

I have had a tough couple of weeks with having to return to work. I am hoping it gets easier as the weeks go by and I get some sleep! We are heading to visit Rob's parents in New York next week. It will be an interesting trip as it is about a nine hour drive. The new DVD player will hopefully keep Mason busy and hopefully Brennan will sleep a lot!

Smile!

Big Smile!

Mason has been very attentive to Brennan. He has wanted to hold Brennan a lot. Mason also loves on Brennan by giving him hugs and kisses… including Eskimo and butterfly kisses! I will have to keep a close eye on Mason as today he tried to pickup Brennan when he was crying! I appreciate the help but, I think mommy should be the one to pick baby up:)

4th of July

For the 4th of July we went to a AAA baseball game; the Richmond Braves vs. the Norfolk Tides. We started the adventure off getting stuck in a rain storm! Since it was a sold out game, we had quite a trek from the car to the stadium. As we were walking, the rain started coming down! So, we started out soaking wet! The game was good but very long; 14 innings! With two outs in the ninth inning the Braves came back to tie up the game. This was a disappointment to all of us since we were waiting for the game to end so the fireworks could begin. Finally, the game ended around 11pm and the fireworks were fantastic! Mason and Brennan were both excellent for the game and fireworks show. Mason happily sat in Aunt Cathy's lap for a good portion of the game. He enjoyed the fireworks and kept saying "stars". He would also name the colors such as "star, it's blue!" He was so cute!

Brennan is a chunky monkey! He is getting so big quickly! He smiles are great and I am trying hard to capture a good one on camera (not an easy task!). Brennan is staying awake longer and more aware of his surroundings. He is very strong. This week while lying on his belly he was able to lift his chest off the floor!

Mason has discovered the sprinkler. He loves water and we are having a hard time keeping him from turning on the hose! In the pictures above, he is actually in his P.J.'s for an early morning sprinkler run!

This is my last week off before I return to work. I will miss being home full time and it will definitely take us some time to get into a new routine. For now, I am going to enjoy my last week off though!

Brothers

Brennan: two weeks ago
Mason loves water!

Well, we have been really busy! I have been wanting to update pictures on here for weeks! My computer time is very limited! Brennan weighed in at 10 lbs 8ozs last week at his one month appointment. He is a big boy! He started smiling this week and he has big dimples like his mommy! Mason is adjusting well. Mason loves to help me with Brennan: he pushes the baby swing, rubs Brennan's feet or belly when he cries, helps me give him baths and tries to give Brennan a pacifier. Mason was sick about two weeks ago with an ear infection and yeast infection which made life tough for awhile. He is feeling better now and we have had many good days. Although, Mason is starting to test me now that he is almost two:)